Large Amplitude Breaking Internal Waves: Their Origin and Dynamics

Abstract

Our objectives are to use both acoustic remote sensing and in situ profile observations of large amplitude internal waves, together with highly resolved numerical simulation, so as to develop a predictive understanding of their behavior, with application to their generation by flow past topography, their contribution to mass and momentum transport, mixing, modulation of near surface bubble clouds and related properties, including the subduction of bubbles and their fate in the presence of large amplitude streamline deformations trapped behind sills, before their release as freely propagating internal waves. A further objective is to use the numerical simulation to test hypotheses related to observed convective overturning and shear instability induced by the waves under different conditions of stratification and shear and to estimate the mixing and dissipation resulting from these processes.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 30, 2007
Accession Number
ADA573100

Entities

People

  • David M. Farmer

Organizations

  • University of Rhode Island

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acoustic Scattering
  • Amplitude
  • Boundaries
  • Boundary Layer
  • Coastal Engineering
  • Continental Shelves
  • Electrical Solitons
  • High Resolution
  • Internal Waves
  • Layers
  • Rhode Island
  • Solitons
  • Sonar
  • South China Sea
  • Stratified Fluids
  • Topography
  • Waves

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Acoustical Oceanography.
  • Atmospheric Science/Meteorology
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)